Daniel Negreanu Streams First Real Money Twitch Session, Wins $50,000

Daniel Negreanu has nothing left to prove in his poker career. He’s won nearly $30 million in live tournament poker, and while there aren’t any reliable cash game stats available, it’s safe to say he’s a favorite at almost any table he joins.

Top it off with the fact that he’s one of poker’s biggest ambassadors to the mainstream public, and it’s not surprising that Negreanu is already a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.

With all of those accolades, it’s fair to say that Negreanu is one of poker’s biggest draws on television and in live poker rooms. It would also make him an extremely popular figure in the latest avenue for poker players: live streaming on Twitch.

Sure enough, Negreanu’s first ventures into the world of online poker streaming have been successful, drawing big crowds and even bigger winnings.

Negreanu Plays Real Money on Second Twitch Stream

Negreanu began streaming online on Tuesday, April 14, when he invited players to watch him hit up some play money tables on PokerStars.

It was only a first attempt at streaming for “Kid Poker,” but it was a successful one: there were somewhere around 150,000 unique views over the course of the broadcast, and he attracted 4,000 followers.

Negreanu thanked two other popular PokerStars streamers for getting him started on Twitch.

“Thanks to Jamie Staples for helping me set up Twitch, and to Jason Somerville for making this platform cool,” Negreanu said on Twitter after his first stream ended.

But while his first stream may have been just for fun, Negreanu featured some much more serious poker his second time around.

On Sunday, Negreanu played in a $400/$800 eight-game mixed game against some very tough competition, including Luke Schwartz, Matthew Ashton, and Ben Sulsky, who Negreanu noted had beat him badly in deep-stacked heads up play.

Negreanu brought a $50,000 stack with him, and battled it out with his opponents for three hours. And at the end of the session, the PokerStars pro was up another $50,000.

Along the way, Negreanu explained the basics of mixed games to viewers, interacting frequently with his Twitch chat throughout.

Streaming from Bed, Negreanu Appears Comfortable With Fans

There was also plenty of fun to be had away from the virtual poker tables during Negreanu’s streams. In his first session, he showed viewers around his house and introduced them to his dog, Mushu.

On Sunday’s real money stream, Negreanu was clearly showing that he was comfortable with his audience, streaming while laying down in his bed and even taking the stream with him to the bathroom at one point.

“I’m currently one of 4300 people watching a stream of a man pissing,” wrote poker pro Mike McDonald during Negreanu’s session.

Negreanu plans to stream again in the future, though fans shouldn’t expect him to pick up the daily schedule of Somerville and Staples anytime soon.

Still, the beginning of Negreanu’s Twitch career has been quite successful: he has already picked up more than 230,000 unique views and nearly 15,000 followers. By way of comparison, Staples has 23,000 followers and 1.5 million views, while Somerville has more than 90,000 followers and close to 5.9 million views.